Diverse methods and apparatus for filling containers are known from the prior art. Further, multi-component beverages are known from the prior art, i.e. beverages wherein a mix of several components is filled into the containers. As an example of this, fruit juice beverages can be mentioned wherein the beverage also contains the flesh or the pulp of the fruit. These beverages are enjoying increasing popularity.
In order to bottle such beverages it is known to mix two components with each other, for example fruit juice and pulp, prior to filling them into the container, and subsequently to supply them to the container as a mix. It is further known that during the filling process, a juice component and the flesh of the fruit are supplied to the container at the same time. Further, pre-dosing systems such as piston filling systems are known from the prior art. However, these systems are relatively difficult to clean and have the additional disadvantage that they are relatively inaccurate and can sometimes cause the destruction of the fruit pieces to be bottled. A further disadvantage of these systems is that upon dosing using a piston filler, no further data is available in relation to the exact composition of the product filled into the containers. This means that here the standard deviations of the respective components add up, so that the accuracy of the quantity filled in is reduced.
WO 2008/014333 A2 describes an apparatus and a method for bottling beverages. Here, a first part of the beverage is first filled in using first filling means and subsequently a second part of the beverage is filled in using further filling means. However, this device does not allow an exact dosing of the individual product proportions.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,729,361 B2 describes a method for filling a product with mixable components into a container. In doing so, a first product proportion is filled in on a filling carousel and a second product proportion is filled in using a second filling carousel. Apart from that, a control unit is provided which controls the quantities of the components that are filled in at each filling station of the container. No checking of said quantities is provided in this apparatus, so that considerable inaccuracies have to be expected here as well.
It may therefore be desirable to provide an apparatus and a method which allow a more accurate bottling or control of the bottled quantities in the case of multi-component beverages.